Eight arrested for cultism, drug peddling in Kogi poly

The joint security team of Kogi State Polytechnic Lokoja, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, arrested three students of the institution and five others suspected to be members of a secret society and hard drug peddlers.

The arrests were made during the ongoing second-semester examination for the 2023/2024 academic session.

A statement issued on Wednesday by the Director, Public Relations and Protocol of the Polytechnic, Omale Uredo, listed the students apprehended who are all of HND II in the Department of Business Administration to  include:
Ajayi Oladipo, Isenre Ayomide, and Omonijo Sunday.

The five non-students, who are all from Ekiti State but based in Abuja Otitoju Christopher, Babatope Ayomide, Isaiah Babatunde, Shina Ayodeji, and Makinde Olalekan.

“The arrest of the suspects was a result of proactive measures put in place by the management of the institution to checkmate infiltration of cultists and other outlawed groups and individuals who were reported to be planning to enter the campus with guns and other dangerous weapons in connivance with some cyber-crime suspects popularly known as yahoo yahoo.

“Their intent, it was gathered, was to cause harm to their targets and commotion on the campus during the ongoing second-semester examination.

“This was in the guise of their end-of-examination graduation “celebration” rituals which the Management had earlier banned due to security concerns” she added.

According to her, in the build-up to the ongoing second-semester examination, the polytechnic management got intelligence reports that some bad elements suspected to be into cybercrime, cultism, and illicit drugs had perfected a plan to import their members from other states and institutions to cause mayhem on the campus.

To prevent the occurrence, she said the management decided to intensify further security strategies by banning all forms of the second-semester examination on the campus in whatever guise.